Thursday, June 19, 2014

What do you get when you mix the tension of testing, a surreptitious video by one of CMS' most prolific critics and a school police officer on a Segway?

Answer: A buzz about what happened when Larry Bumgarner volunteered to proctor exams at Independence High and ended up being escorted off campus and threatened with arrest.

Bumgarner

Bumgarner, a three-time school board candidate, calls the incident an example of "goon squad" tactics by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Earnest Winston, the superintendent's chief of staff, says Principal Amy Dellinger and her staff acted appropriately when Bumgarner became disruptive during state testing.

Adding to the tension is the fact that the presidents of the district's two teacher groups, Judy Kidd of the Classroom Teachers Association and Charlie Smith of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, work at Independence and have different views of what happened.

Here's what I know: Many schools were in desperate need of proctors in May. State exams that have consequences for schools and teachers are supposed to get outside monitors to ensure the integrity of the system. Schools have to be careful that nothing occurs during testing that would violate state rules and invalidate the results.

Kidd

Bumgarner posts frequently on the Observer's web site, usually about the shortcomings of CMS and the superiority of charter schools. But he also volunteers to proctor at his alma mater, West Charlotte High, and Kidd asked if he'd do the same at Independence.

Bumgarner agreed. He and CMS officials agree that during his first day as a volunteer he made a remark about working in "troubled" or "challenged" schools. A student's grandparent overheard the comment and complained to school administrators.

During his stint as an Independence proctor, Bumgarner also used his phone to shoot video of students in the classroom. At least four had their heads down, and one, who had a blue sneaker perched on his desk, glared at Bumgarner and shook his head. Bumgarner said Wednesday the students had gotten noisy when the teacher left the room and he shot the video to quiet them.

The next day, someone from Independence told Bumgarner he wasn't needed to proctor. Kidd, who says proctors were still needed, called Bumgarner. He came to the school and reported to a classroom that already had a proctor. Bumgarner was told again that he wasn't needed.

Smith says he saw that part of the encounter, and Bumgarner was "pitching a fit."

"He just stormed off," Smith said Wednesday. "He was irate and he was very rude. Everybody that I saw trying to deal with him was extremely professional and extremely polite."

Bumgarner went to the classroom where Kidd was stationed to proctor an exam. A campus security guard showed up, and that's when Bumgarner turned the phone on his belt onto video mode. In the recording that ensues, Bumgarner repeatedly urges the guard to call Mint Hill police and asks to talk to the principal.

"You're going to the office and you're getting ready to be arrested," the security guard says. "You have come here and disrupted testing. Have you lost your mind, mister?"

Bumgarner continues talking as they approach the school resource officer's office. "I'm tired of your mouth. Now shut up, you understand me?" the guard says.

The school resource officer wheels up on a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Segway, and Bumgarner is taken into the school security office. The decor captured on the video features an American flag and a life-size shooting-range target with bullet holes clustered around the center of a human silhouette. Other security staff gather in the office, but when Dellinger arrives she disperses them.

In the calm but disjointed conversation that follows, Bumgarner tells Dellinger that he did "show my displeasure" with what he considered a disorganized volunteer system, in which he and other volunteers were sent to rooms that already had proctors.

"This is the first year where our North Carolina finals have ever had proctoring," Dellinger responds. "We had 87 testing sessions, 67 proctors. That's a first in history."

Dellinger tells Bumgarner she got complaints about his comment that "I only work at troubled schools."

"Why do you feel that Independence is a troubled school?" she asks. "I'm just curious. I want to get feedback. It helps us grow."

Bumgarner asks for "a Q&A" with the concerned family members, refers to his web sites and urges Dellinger to look up her school on GreatSchools.org, a site where people submit reviews. "I assume I'm under arrest," Bumgarner states, and when Dellinger assures him he's not, he says he's going to go play golf.

"I want to extend my apology on behalf of us," Dellinger tells Bumgarner, adding that she should have asked him earlier about his remark.

Bumgarner, who was escorted out by a security staffer, says he called the superintendent's office to report the episode. He said Wednesday that Dellinger and the school officer were polite, but the talk of arrest was threatening and the atmosphere, including the Segway, is designed to intimidate. He said he is disappointed that he has not gotten an apology from CMS.

Winston said he spoke with Bumgarner and Dellinger, and "I don't have any evidence that anything was done incorrectly or that Larry was mistreated in any way." Winston said he heard about the "troubled schools" comment, but said Dellinger told him that wasn't why Bumgarner was turned away. Instead, he said, he was told the school simply had enough proctors that day.

"That's a lie," said Kidd, who said the teacher across the hall from her was trying to find a proctor as Bumgarner was being led away. "They should not have kicked the man off campus," she added.

75
comments:

Anonymous
said...

An outside adult filming kids in class during a testing session without the permission of the parent/guardian? Sounds like a misadministration to me. Congrats, if it was declared a misadministration and the kids had to take the test again.

Good ol' Larry. A legend in his own mind. Glad to hear he volunteered to proctor, as with these new state demands, schools find themselves in holes all the time as it is. However, me thinks Larry had an alternative motive on this one.

Testing is stressful enough for teachers, administrators, and students. Add to this mix a goon with an agenda, and there is going to be problems.

Call the Mint Hill police, Larry? Do you have an inkling of understanding of the mentality of these kids when a cop is called onto campus and its effect on concentration levels? So much for an optimum testing environment.

If Mr. Larry had been a teacher he would have been pulled immediately for misadministration and summarily fired, due process (tenure) or not. The leniency shown to this agenda deluded individual is unfortunate as it never would have been as generous to a student, teacher, or administrator.

As a side note during the tests I proctored the teacher took up all phones and put them in a storage room during all portions of the test.

He should be arrested and never on any campus, CMS or charter. There're enough problems inside any school(charters included) without outside agitators on a interference mission at 0715.

Yes, all of the above sounds extremely professional and extremely polite...right?______________________________"Why do you feel that Independence is a troubled school?" Dellinger asks. "I'm just curious. I want to get feedback. It helps us grow."

Below is one resource. Other sites offer contrasting viewpoints.

From WCNCPosted on May 24, 2010 CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The school year is winding down and the last few weeks have been rough at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools -- from reports of guns on campus to a gun actually going off in a classroom.

NewsChannel 36 analyzed school violence reports to find out which schools are the most troubled. What we found has parents and students stunned.

Right or wrong, the school resource officer at Independence High School admits certain Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools have reputations.

"I guess it's a reputation that Independence has gotten over the years and, to me, it's not deserved," said Fred Allen.

He knows his school and his students can be considered rough. He's the one that found a loaded gun under a ninth-grader's desk this year.

"This year I got a gun, but that doesn't mean this school is any worse than any other school," Allen said._____________________Both Larry and the offending employees at the school need to apologize. As the saying goes "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar".

While I (as a former educator) am in no way approving of his actions, I think Larry might have done what he needed to do. He filmed the kids for a reason, specifically, to get them to calm down. Kids are not dumb, they know video evidence of acting like a fool once the teacher is away can lead to real trouble; without it, it's their word vs. the proctors (how ever unlikely that is).

I think Larry's distrust for CMS is legitimate. Wasn't going to say anything, but this seems like a good example. At a local elementary school, a principal who is rumored to be the next principal at a high school, adamantly denies these rumors for months, to the teachers and parents. Using phrases like "not actively seeking another job" and "these RUMORS need to stop", staff felt that it was assured he wasn't going to that high school. Even at the end-of-year breakfast last week, he reaffirmed his commitment to this elementary school.

Then the call came last night, a voice mail, that states he will be the next principal at the high school he's been linked with since January. If an administrator, obviously hell bent on climbing the latter, will blatantly lie for 6 months about abandoning a school for another; you have to ask? What WOULDN'T they lie about?

Again, not promoting Larry's actions, but the distrust for CMS is alive and well!

Bumgarner sounds like a real stand-up guy. He wasn't there to volunteer, he was there to cause trouble. What context warrants the 'troubled school' quip? I thought he worked there bc he was an alum. And recording kids for any reason is crazy-pants. Go away dude. Get a life.

Kidd has an apparent agenda herself in my mind. Anyone who is there for the sake of volunteering for children doesn't get involved in such matters unless they want to make a political statement.

The security guard was wrong to lose a sense of professionalism in dealing with Larry - no matter how much he was provoked.

Yet both of the above only exacerbated a situation that was manufactured for clearly nefarious reasons by Larry Bumgarner.

Only someone out to start trouble would volunteer to proctor at a school and then make comments loud enough for others to hear about the perceived quality of the school - particularly on the day the students need no distraction about what they are doing.

Larry also had no business utilizing his camera phone during testing. Besides it being questionable about his mentality to think it is ever ok to video underage students at school - it raises questions of legality of phones usage during testing as well as privacy invasion. Something only a person who is out to cause a political grandstand would purposely risk.

And again - he did it to the students who needed to focus and have no distractions.

Finally - Larry has absolutely no business making a scene once he was asked to leave. It is repetitious but it is clear that Larry cared about Larry that day and not the children he apparently wanted to "help".

Personally - I would have no issue from his behavior being cause from banning him from CMS property.

The CMS handbook and forms located on the CMS website includes a video release form. Is it signed as the standard or the exception? The handbook gives students the responsibility to support a positive educational environment.

Assuming that parents sign the video waiver as the rule, and not the exception, I think that Mr. Bumgarner was doing the right thing by filming disruptive behavior.

As a BigI alum, I feel like Larry was stirring the pot with an old rival when talking about 'challenged school'.

At the end of the day, this is just some high school drama. Aren't we adults? What kind of example are we setting?

yes, this is the same "larry" on this blog. And I would agree, Larry had no business filming children without permission and even worse, doing so during testing. His filming and behavior shows a serious lack of sound judgement.

And to Lary's point about Great schools.org, if you were to check, you would find several of the local charter schools in this region have recently been receiving very bad reviews, Pine Lake Prep, Queen's Grant, Union Academy and Cabarrus Charter Academy for example. To be fair, others such as lake Norman Charter have recevied glowing reviews.

Ms. Kidd, I proctored at several schools this year. It takes different amounts of time for proctors to reach the classrooms. Some show a bit late. To say "that's a lie" is insulting to Ms. Dellinger, who video footed showed acted like a pro. Seems that two adults acted like children in this case.

Bolyn, that would be Clairol, not P&G, so you got one answer incorrect on your test.

Reagrding the "troubled/challenging schools" comment from Larry, it is a factual comment. You know it, I know it, the principal knows it, but you're not supposed to say it. It's "politically incorrect".

While I have taken issue with many of Larry's arguments he has posted on this blog, especially regarding his strong support of charter schools. However, this is a bio I found about him online when he was running for CMS school board back in 2011.

• Larry Bumgarner, a 56-year-old Mint Hill resident, has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bumgarner says he retired early, is a conservative and currently helps people find jobs. He’s been married to Christy for 36 years. Bumgarner was one of the original volunteers for the Gang of One, working with gangs. He served previously on the Citizens Transit Committee for The Charlotte Area Transit System and the Mint Hill Education Committee as the town’s liaison to Independence High School

I would say what the security guard had to say wasn't "extremely professional". And to Larry's point, if you do a search on Independence High school reputation or trouble, you'll find some to support what he had to say.

He definitely shouldn't be filming students, and he overreacted. But, it sounds like he wasn't the only one who overreacted.

Regardless of his views/purpose for being there, he screwed up bringing a cell phone into a testing session and recording children - if I were a parent of one of the children filmed I would have a real problem with that.

It is extremely risky for two guys to argue over women's beauty products, however P&G owns Clairol.

In clarifying Clairol's ownership, I made my way to the Independence HS website. I was looking to see if the school had a cosmetology department.

I saw a CTE survey for seniors. Probably all CMS CTE students. While it was clearly stated that no 3rd party would get to see the results, it would be interesting to read anonymously some of answers to one of the questions:

"What is your long term career goal?"

With CMS being so conflicted over what the future needs of its students will be, it would be interesting to see if the students and CMS have similar or different outlooks.

No question: Mrs. Kidd and Mr. Bumgarner took advantage of an extremely stressful time for students and teachers to advance their own agenda - to discredit Independence High School and its principal. As a parent of an Independence student, I am impressed with the respect and restraint school personnel showed toward Mr. Bumgarner. I would have found it difficult to be so polite. Maybe ALL persons involved would be happier if Mrs. Kidd and Mr. Bumgarner would leave Indy out of their machinations and instead start their own charter school.

Is Ms. Kidd the testing coordinator at the school or just overstepping her bounds and authority by inviting him there to begin with? Did the school testing plan assign her to secure proctors for the testing sessions? Just wondering? Sounds like she was a big part of the problem and her statements afterward only reinforce that notion. Sounds like she's trying to stir up something in a situation she was prominent in creating from the get-go. But, that's just my opinion.

I volunteer at schools and sure, I have been very frustrated by various things and learned the hard way that you can't confront and solve issues head on. You have to eventually be honest that human nature is to be selfish and to keep outsiders from messing up your daily routine; right or wrong. Administrators are not Educators, they are people managers.While I have seen problems and sometimes documented them, fighting them head on wins no friends nor change. You have to convince people to WANT to change. Clearly if there is something criminal you MUST confront. But when it is an issue of people just doing their jobs poorly, you have to manipulate them to think the changes are THEIR idea.

A gun was found at Independence in 2010......before the zone change and before Ms. Dellinger came. The school is much better now. Shamash, Mr. Bumgarner was told he was not needed the next dayby the testing official.. Ms. KIDD, who was proctoring an exam and who did not have a class on the day in question, asked him to come to the school, thereby overruling her bosses. They had an agenda and were plotting trouble. As far as security, unless you want a paid adult at every door it seems they reacted quickly to an uninvited adult on the campus. I won't even go into the part of earlier videotaping of kids after they finished their exam. Larry has made it clear he hates the public schools and his presence is to hurt them not help.

I am a parent of an Indy student and I proctored at the exams. The teacher was professional, took up all phones before the testing, and began testing. Students were told that until the exam was over (5 hours!) If they finished early they could either read a book or sleep. When the last student finished the teacher left to deliver the exams, students began to wake up and talk. I don't see why Larry would think it was okay to tape at this point. If anything, he should apologize to the parents of the kids who were taped by this individual.

I had proctered at my neighborhood assigned high school. The amount of inattention and effort by the stduents on the tests concreted my understandings of why the teachers fought having it used as par tof their assessments. I discontinued going becuase I was frustrated with the lack of responsiveness by the adminstration to address these students and have them removed. They simply gummed up the education machine. I fully understand the desire to video them and fully understand Wiley's having to pull out documentation to fend off the misdimissiveness of the principal. I had a principal at a minority high school attempt to run us "white parents" out. Luckily, he did enough to sabotage his career while we continued to help the teachers and staff "under the radar".

Many have said CMS has a long ways to go to build back up its credibility. That has been said around here since the debacle they pulled in the federal courthouse in 1999. Knowing as many teachers and adminstration as I do, it is apparent CMS higher ups have no clue how to educate students unless the feds have made it so cumbersome, the only solution is to close CMS and let parents have the vouchers.

I think Ms. Dellinger is in her first year as principal at Indy. Sounds like she handled this situation very well. I expect the security guard is paid less than $30k and Larry was probably running his mouth to him. When he asked Larry if he had "lost his mind" was not too out of line but I expect I may have told him to shut up myself. The security officer with the bullet riddled target hanging up is an idiot. May be that is his way to deter would be school shooters who would probably never see the target. Ms Kidd sounds like she is a pot stirrer working her association's agenda. Larry is a jack as1.

Shamash,I understand that greatschools.org is not scientific and can be a platform for people to show bias, also parental opinion is so subjective. But my point was in repsonce to Larry, he advocates for charters and stated that the person should check out the reviews posted about Independence. I merely pointed out, the same could be stated of several charters in this region.

Larry has shown time and time again that he is an obstructionist and a troublemaker. he has no business setting foot in any school in Charlotte or anywhere else for that matter. It's about time we all ignore him and make him more irreverent than he already is anyway in this community.

wiley,I think it is neither fair or correct to equate all of public education with CMS. I am sure there are those who would argue otherwise, but there are some really good school districts surrounding Charlotte.

Ms. Kidd needs to keep her comments to herself (she has some kind of agenda), Bumgarner clearly acted like an ass and was dealt with as such. I do think the security officer needs to deal with situations such as this in a more professional manner, other than that, CMS owes this person nothing. If anyone should apologize, it should be Bumgarner.

Sorry , but if a "proctor" filmed our took pictures of my kid in a public setting like this a lawsuit would follow. Its poor judgement on Larry and CMS to be in that spot in the first place. CMS knows what Larry stands for and his views. They let him close to students? A judge would have a field day with that one. Just poor judgement to have him in front of students with his rant views. KW Hurley

The Principal and security guard where professional. Hanging target in the officers is not a big deal. The are common place around law enforcementNothing to get your panties in a bunch about Wiley. Disrupting a school during testing is unprofessional. He should of put the students above himself. Some of the regulars on this blog surprise me with their defense of this behavior. Hypocritical and surprising..

2 or 3 years ago, I heard the Director of Transportation give a report that it cost them $52,000 to transport one child, not a special needs child, for the school year. Right then, I knew all was lost in the ivory tower.

Larry, don't be surprised if you end up in court. Parents don't take kindly to middle aged men videotaping their kids. As for me, if you did that to my kid we would have a one on one meeting in Mint Hill.

The courts are more to blame for the political correctness in schools then CMS. I don't see any change coming from the boys in Raleigh. They have been in power since 2011 and every thing's the same. We are loosing teachers, bureaucrats rule CMS and we have the feds pushing mandate's. New boss same as the old boss... As far as education goes.

If any of you want to know what Larry is like, I would encourage all of you to go to youtube and watch the q&A sessions from when he was running for the CMS school board. I promise you, if for no other reason, you will laugh yourself to tears. I found him to be completely rude to the point of being utterly ridiculous, good God.

I will share one point with you, and keep in mind he was running for a seat on the CMS school board. He was asked if he felt CMS had done anything positive, he says sure, you closed some of our schools!

Don't ever believe the CMS spin, or the lack of information that comes out of CMS. They continually cover up News stories, like all the crap going on at AK highschool.

FYI, students are filming eachother everyday at school on their I-phones. Where's the outrage? Where's the CMS technology policy when you need it? CMS continually turns their back on these types of infractions on a daily basis, and asks CMPD to keep their mouths shut.

If people want to change schools and help children, teach.. I can't do it, I respect those who can. Whining and complaining on blogs is useless. I remember watching the movie"waiting for super man". There was a chancellor of DC schools in the movie. She was a young Asian American. I believe her name was Michele. She was rude and unprofessional but I agreed with many of her opinions. Then I found out she only taught for 2 years!! If you truly have a passion for children, 2 years could not be enough. Later I found out she quit being chancellor after 2 years with very little success.. DC schools are still a nightmare. There has also been talk of wide spread cheating during her tenure. Some say she is to politically powerful to get in trouble. She was supported by both the bushes and the Obama's. She now is on a talking tour making over 30,000 a lecture!!! That's more then many teachers make. I have come to the conclusion that people should put up or shut up. Talk is cheap.. Unless your listening to one of the chancellors lectures..